Engine control



June 9, 192 5.- 1,541,052 I J. H. HUNT E GI E; CONTROL I Filed March 27 1919" Sheiets-Sheeb 1 IIIITN EEEE [All passed June. 9, 1-925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN cemn'r, or DAYTON, OHIO, iissrenoit TO THE DAYTON ENGINEERING,

LABORATORIES COMPANY,

A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

ENGINE CON TROLL Application filed March 27, 1919. Serial No. 285,660.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN H. HUNT, a

' citizen of the United States of America, re-

speed variations without regard to load vasiding at Dayton, county of Montgomery,

State'of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Engine Controls, of which the following is a'full, clear, and enact ,description.

This invention relates to internal-Combos tion or. explosion engineaand one object of the invention is to control the timing '0f the ignition for-the engine in such a manner as to; secure the maximum efficiency while preventing injurious operationof the engme. V I

In carrying out this invention, .1. have found that better fuel economy can be obtained where the spark is advanced when the engine is runnin'gat moderate speeds and with acomparatively light load,to a greater degree' maintained without the engine knockin when carrying I have found that within a certain range of variations of engine load, the spark maybe advanced or retarded in accordance with nations, but that above a.certain loadde-' pending on the type of engine the spark must"be retarded to securesatisfactory en- 'gine performance. One manner of accomplishing-the object is to control the timer manually inorder that the timing can be set to give the best engine performanceat comparatively light loads and moderate speeds: to control the timer in accordance with the speed of the bine with the manual and speed control other means for controlling the ignition timing'in accordance with the position of the throttle, so that above a certain engine load vthespark will be retarded.

' Other and further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings,

' wherein preferred embodiments of the pres- Fig. 2 is a side elevation of an ignition .of certain of the of advance thancould be a comparatively heavy loa engine; and to comunit showing certain of the controlling devices therefor; V

FigI3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the ignition unit shown in Fig. 2 taken on the line 8-3 together with a sectional View in Fig. 2. said later sectional view taken onthe line 3.-3= of Fig. 2 and Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view showing av modified. form of the ignition controlling devices.

In the drawings, an internal-combustion engine 20 is provided with an intake manifold 21 in which is located a throttle valve 22 operated by valve lever 23. Lever 23 is connected. by g with a bevel gear 26 which meshes with a bevel gear 27 at right angles thereto. 27 is mounted on a shaft 28 which carries at its upper end a throttle lever 29.

n ignition unit 30 is mountedv upon the engine 20 and is mechanically connected with the crank shaft of the engine in a" wellknown manner by gearing not shown. Ignicontrolling devices shownbeing link 24 with arm 25 connected Gear tion unit 30 is n'ianually'controlled by means leverf37. Shaft 28 and tube 36 and thegearing connected therewith may be journalled within the steering post of the motor vehicle, upon which the engine 20 is mounted.

Referring particularly to Figs. 2 and 3, lever 31 is loosely journalled upon a shaft 42 and carries a pivotally mounted pinion 43 which meshes with internal gear ,44 carried by a sector plate 45 which is. loosely journalled uponshaft 42. Pinion 43 en gages also a gear 46 which is fixed upon the shaft 42. Segment 45 is provided with an arm 47 which is connected by link 48 with throttle valve lever 23.

Shaft 42 is journalled in bearings 49 and 50 carried by the timer housing 51, and sup ports withinsaid housing a forked lever 52. Lever 52 carries studs 53, 53 whichengage with a grooved collar 54 slidably mounted upon a shaft 55. Shaft 55, is journalled in bearings 56 and 57 carried, bytimer housing 51. Collar 54 carries a pin'58 passing diametrically across the central aperture thereof and through spiral slots formed in shaft end of a tube 36' shaft -6i.

of any suitable gearing with the crank shaft- 63 pivotally a straight slot 60 formed inthe driying Shaft 61.is connected by means of the engine, not shown, so-as to be rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow 62.

Shaft 55 supports a Centrifugal element mounted atv 64 and connected by means of link 65 with sleeve 66. Sleeve 66 carries a pin 67 passing diametrically across the central aperture thereof and through a straight slot 68 formed in shaft 55 and through a spiral slot 69 formed in shaft 70 which supports the timer cam 71.

and a distributor rotor 72. Cam 71 cooperateswith breaker arm 73 to separate the timer-contacts in the well known manner, the movable tuner contact 74 being sup ported upon breaker arm 73 and the stat1onary timer contact being supported upon abracket 75. A spring 76 isinterposedbetween the sleeve 66 and the bearing 57 for the purpose of resisting the action of centrifugal force upon the weight member 63. It is evident from the foregoing descrip tion that the timer of the ignition will be advanced with increasing speed,v for the reason that as the centrifugal member tends to assume a horizontal position sleeve 66 will move upwardly carrying pin 67 with 68 and 69- will advance the cam shaft .70

'in' the direction of the arrow 62. In .a sim ilar manner upward movement of the collar 54 will effect the advance of ignition for thereason that as pin 58 ismoved upward ly, shaft 55 will be advanced ,relatively to shaft 6 1 in the direction of the arrow 62.

This movement of the collar 54 is effected by rotating the shaft 42,'which in turn is arranged to berotatedmanually either di rectly by means-ofthe spark lever 37 or indirectly through the throttle control lever 29. Assuming that throttlel'ever 29 is stationary,the arm 47 and sector plate carry ing internal gear 34 will be maintainedstationary. Whenever spark lever 37 is moved .to advance the sparkthe arm 31 will be moved clockwise as indicated in .Fig. 2 thereby effecting counter clockwise rotation of gear-"43 about its own axis and the clockwise orbital rotation of the axis of gear 43 clockwise motion to gear 46 causing sleeve 54 to. move upwardly to advance the spark.

' Assuming that the spark lever 37 is held,

stationary when the throttle lever 29 is moved towards open position'pthe valve lever 28 and valve 22 will be inoved in a clock-- wise'direction. The idling position of valve 22 and lever 23 is indicated at 22 and 23 respectively; An intermediate position of these members is indicated-by the full lines.

- When the valve 22 is wide open and will occupy the position 22", the valvelever will one of which is shown at 59, and through which through-the connections with slots about shaft 42 -This motion will impart occupy the position 23. .The idling'position of link 48 is shown at 48, the position corresponding to full open valve position is shown at 48 It will be noted that as the valve opens from idling position 22 to an intermediateposition 22, the arm 47 will receive very little motion on account of the relation of-link 48 to arm 23. But as the, valve 'opens. still further from intermediate position 22 to position 29) a substantial motion will be imparted to the lever 47 cansing it to take the position 47 This clockwise movement'of lever 47 will effect the .reta'rd of'the spark in the following manner, -Lever 81andthe pivot of gear 43 be ing stationary, as internal. gear is rotated clockwise, gear 48 will be rotated also clockwise causing gear 46 tov be rotated counter clockwise with. a result that vsleeve 44 is moved downwardly to retard thespark.

'- It is apparent thereforethat no substantial retarding of the spark takes place im mediately upon the movement of the throttle valve from idling -towardsopen position,'' 4

but that a substantial -movement-begins to take place "afterthevalve has openedto when the throttle is opened still further 'It is to be understood, however, that three quarters torque is not the load carried by all types of internal-combustion engines at which ignition knocking begins to occur, but that this load will vary for different types; of engines. therefore that at some predetermined position ofthe throttle between idling and full open position that'it is necessary to retard the spark somewhat in order to prevent knocking. In Fig. 1 this predetermined po sition of the throttle is indicated in the full lines at 22;

In order, to secure the best engine per- It will be understood v formanceand fuel economy all that is necessary is to set the spark lever 37 at the position which will give the best engine performance for light loads at moderate speeds, allowing the automatic timer control advanceor retard the spark in accordance with variations in speed of the engine. No further adjustment of the spark lever is necessary, since the advance de- 'telmllled, by the manual and automatic speed control of; the :timer will give .satisfactory engine performance and fuel economy .up to a certain load carried by the engine. When this predetermined load is exceeded, further opening ofth'e throttle to take care of this. load v will efi'ectthe -retarding of the spa'rk th'e correct 'amount 111 the manner described; .11; e I

A modified form ofthe fin'vention is shown in Fig. 4.

nalled upon the shaft I one end by link 32 withthe-farm,;33, shown in. Fig. 1, and carries I I 81 which ,is-connected by spring ,82 with a in fixed relation with shaft 42. 82- normally maintains a stud 85 at its other enda stud stud 83 carried by arm 84which is mounted The spring carried by. arm 84 in contact with the arm 80 and thereby limits the angular relation of arms 80 and 84 inone direction. The relation of these arms in another direction is limited by a stop lug :86 carried by arin 84 which-is arranged to engage with a stud 87 carried by the lever 80. The link 24 connects the ment with lever 92' by means throttle lever 29 with a lever 90 which is mountedin fixed relation with a .throttle valve shaft 91 which supports the throttle valve 22. An arm 92 is loosely journalled upon the shaft 91 and connected with'lever 90 by means of 'a spring 93. Astud 94 carried by lever' 90,, is normally'held in engageof spring 93, and serves to limit the angular relation between levers 90 and 92 in one direction. Lever 92 is connected with alink 95 which is provided with a slot 96 into which projects a pin 97 carried by lever 84.

The operationof the 'form of the invention shown in Fig. 4 is as follows: P

Let it be assumed that the engine is carrying a loadbeyond which it is necessary to retard the spark in order to prevent ignition knocking; The throttle valve position corresponding to this load' is, at 22 in Fig. 4.

This throttle position corresponds to the intermediate throttle position 22' shown in 'Fig. 1. By reason of the pin and slot con.-

nection between link 95 and lever 84-manual control of the spark by means of the spark lever 37 is permitted. The valve 22 can be moved from idling position to the position shown in Fig. 4 without affecting the timer control. Fig. 4shows the relation of the timing controlling elements, when the spark has been advanced manually, as far as is consistent with the operation of the engine without knocking. Further movement of the spark lever toward the spark advancing position will cause the lever 84 to shift link 95 toward the right as viewed in Fig. 4 and impart counter clockwise movement of the lever 92 relatively to the lever 90. This movement will increase the tension in spring 93 which is of sufiicient strength that an Lever 80. is loosely jour- 42; o is; connected at .j

appreciable increase of force will need to be employed to the spark lever 37 in order to elongate this s'ring. This substantial increase in force will indicate to the operator that the timing has been advanced too far by the spark lever. If'the load on the engine is increased still further and throttle valve 22 is opened still wider to meet, this demand for increased power, motion will be imparted to lever 92 from lever.90 through the spring 93 causing link 95 to move to the left and toe'ngage pin 97 and to move lever 84 towards spark retarding position. Spring '93 is made suflicientlv stronger than spring 82 so that angular displacement of levers 84 and can take place withoutangula'r displacement of levers and 92.- This movement of lever 84 may continue until the stop stud 87 carried by lever lug 86 engages the 7 80 whereupon further movement in the same direction of lever '84, linkj95 and lever '92'is prevented. Then, by reason of the;

spring driving connection between levers 90 and 92, further clockwise movement of "lever 90 may continue without retarding the spark further than the predetermined amount. As the load on the engine is decr'eased'and throttle 22 is'm'oved towards closed position, the spark will be. advanced, automatically since the spring 82' will restore the normal angular relation between levers 80- and 84.

The form of. the invention shown in Fig.

4 can be used advantageously where it is not practical to'require a close adjustment of the throttle valve lever relatively to the timer controlling mechanism or'where the throw of the throttle lever from the predetermined open position to full open position 1s greaterthan that required to retard the spark tomeet the loadconditions. The form of the invention provides a limit to the throttle control of the spark retard while allowing the throttle valve to' be opened as wide as desired. This form can be advantageously used where on'account of the nature of the engine to be controlled it is desirable to effect aretard during only a part of the movement of the throttlevalve from the predetermi-n'edopen position to ling-shaft; a throttle control lever; a spark control lever;'a lever loosely mounted on said shaft and carrying a pinion; a gear fixed to said shaft and engaging said pinion; a second gear loosely mounted on said shaft and engaging said pinion; means connecting said second gear with said throttle controllever; and means connecting said third mentioned lever with said spark control lever. I a

2. In a control system for internal-combustion engines, the combination with an engine having a throttle vah'e and a throttle lever for controlling the same of an ignition unit having amovable controlling member; a gear for operating said member; a second gear; an intermediate pinion connecting said gears; aspark controlling lever; means for connecting the second gear with one of said levers; andmeans for connecting the pinion with the other of said levers for bodily movement of said pinion.

3. In a control system for internal combustion engines, the combination with an engine having a throttle valte and throttle lever for controlling the same; of an ignition unit having a movable controlling member; a spark control lever; means connected with one of said levers and with said member, including a rotatable member; and means connecting said rotatable member with the other of said levers for producing translatory movement of the axis of said unit.

4;. In a control system for an internal combustion engine having a throttle valve and an ignition timer, in combination, three individual systems for controlling said timer which are cumulatively operable to advance or retard said timer, including first, an engine speed controlled system, second, a system controlled by the throttle valve position, and third, a manually controlled system.

-5. In a control system for an internal combustion engine having a throttle valve and an ignition timer, in combination, three individual systems for controlling said timer which are simultaneously and onmulatively operable to advance or retard said timer, including first, an engine speed controlled system, second, a system controlled by the throttle valve position, and third, a manually controlled system, the normal operation of the second system being unchanged by a changeof setting of the third system. I I

In testimony whereof I afiix my signa ture.

v JOHN H. HUNT.

W'itnesses:

HAZEL Sormuennenn, J. W. MCDONALD. 

